Nestled in an already heavy schedule of theater, concerts, art exhibits and other cultural events, the PACE Center holds a place for two special opportunities for young creatives to interact with their craft and receive real-world feedback, encouragement and skills.

“We want all the students we work with to have the chance to build confidence in themselves, have the opportunity to practice their chosen discipline outside of their schools and also connect with artists from our community and around our state,” said Carrie Glassburn, cultural director at Parker Arts. “We often find that the working artists that join us get as much out of the opportunity as the kids do.”

For many years, Parker Arts has offered a unique experience for high school students who are working at the highest levels of visual arts called “Portfolio Days”. The event includes a select group of about 40 high school students working in and around the Front Range to have their visual art portfolios reviewed and critiqued by art professors, working artists and their peers.

Also included in the event are panel discussions on various topics, support for writing their artist’s statement and practice at presenting that statement in a realistic scenario. The students are also able to visit with various universities that have art programs to learn more about those programs and how to apply. Finally, the event culminates in a gallery exhibit and reception, where prizes and scholarships are awarded.

“When students tell their families they want to be a professional artist, sometimes the support isn’t there. We want to show them that it is possible to make a living as an artist, and give them the tools to do it,” Glassburn said. “We want them to meet and talk with artists who are already working so they can see what it looks like in practice.”

In the same vein, Parker Arts also stages an annual Shakespeare Festival for Parker-area middle and high school students  that allows burgeoning actors to compete with their peers for top acting accolades. Each competing student or team of students performs a scene or soliloquy from Shakespeare in front of multiple expert panels including working actors, producers and directors. Winners perform on the mainstage of the PACE Center for their fellow competitors. The event also includes acting workshops ranging from stage combat to Elizabethan dance to Shakespearian insults.

“We do a lot of workshops, classes and camps each year, but these two events are special because they allow us to bring together young creatives who have similar interests and expand their skills,” Glassburn said. “The fact that they are also able to connect with working artists is their discipline just adds to the whole experience.”

A bastion of visual arts for students of all ages, DAVA has found ways to expand on its already broad scope, offering creative approaches to health and wellness rooted in scientific discovery. Kids are eagerly exploring subjects like microbiology and oceanography as the non-profit heads toward its 30^th anniversary in May.

“We’re focused on bringing every word of our mission statement to life,” said Krista Robinson, DAVA Executive Director. “We engage diverse youth in meaningful arts education that sparks creativity, increases opportunity, and strengthens community.”

For 7-year-old Luis and University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Student Annie Cao that meant an unusual learning experience together.

After pandemic closures, DAVA expanded its college intern program to provide more opportunities for hands-on learning for all ages. The interns were not only diverse, emerging leaders and incredible role models for DAVA kids, they were also able to bring best practices and research from their own degree programs to deepen student learning. Recently, The University of Colorado Anschutz School of Medicine selected DAVA to host a medical student intern as a part of their service-learning program. That’s where Luis and Annie met.

At first, Luis was reluctant to join the Open Studio. He was shy and felt intimidated since English is his second language. His mom had heard that DAVA staff was bilingual, and she convinced Luis to stay with the help of Program Assistant, Lizeth. Now, months later, Luis is one of DAVA’s most enthusiastic students and regular attendees. He participated in DAVA’s special summer STEAM project combining art and science with Annie, who came to help kids learn about microbiology. She practiced her Spanish with Luis, and he asked a lot of smart questions about using microscopes and becoming a doctor. On the last day of this special project, Luis made a sculpture of a “good bacteria” that he learned about and added googly eyes. He presented it to Annie to decorate her office when she becomes a doctor, and she said she will keep it “forever.”

“Volunteering at DAVA has brought me an unexpected joy, and I’ve never met students who are as inquisitive or enthusiastic about the sciences,” Annie said. “They consistently encourage me with their questions and desire to learn more.”

The work with Cao included the world of microbiology where students used microscopes to study viruses and bacteria, learning about where they live and how they exist. With this new knowledge, students created watercolor paintings of bacteria and viruses and sculpted various shapes of microscopic life forms. They then created an interactive exhibition in the DAVA Gallery for visitors to learn about their discoveries.

This summer, DAVA students will join educators from Boulder’s Ocean First Institute and Denver’s Bluff Lake Nature Center to explore important topics in the natural world, conservation projects, plastic pollution in our waterways and oceans – and how they are all connected. The opportunity will include field research and testing pollution in local water sources. For DAVA’s September exhibition, the young scientists and artists will be bringing sea creatures to life using recycled plastics and even bioluminescence.

“For years, we have been doing art education in libraries, and the museum decided to expand on the outreach education programs in libraries with dynamic exhibitions that spark curiosity,” Butcher said.

In conjunction with BMoCA’s downtown Boulder museum space, contemporary art is blooming in libraries across Adams, Arapahoe and the newest partner, Jefferson county library districts.

In the small town of Bennett, in Adams County’s farthest eastern reach, BMoCA offers contemporary art that is informed by the community and its residents to explore ideas about their own town and landscape. As part of her project, featured artist Cherish Marquez held two community workshops where participants built a simple video game using Unreal Engine, a 3D computer graphic engine. Participants created their own virtual landscape, while telling stories of Bennett which were embedded in the final game design.

A topographic map was made from recycled fabric, and conductive material, which allowed users to move through the digital community model created during the workshop.

Across the street from the library sits Bennett School District (including the elementary, middle and high school). Melinda Laz, BMoCA Educational Outreach Manager worked to bring these unique art experiences to classrooms and make connections to the art in the library.

“Libraries have a unique connection to community,” Laz said. “Students learned about the artwork and artist directly in their classrooms and then could walk across the street to engage even more deeply with the work.”

For over ten years, BMoCA has been partnering with libraries in the greater Denver metro area bringing contemporary art education programs to the spaces. These programs and partnerships have provided a strong foundation for BMoCA’s exhibitions programs at libraries, an effort which began in 2021 in three library branches and has grown to exhibitions in nine libraries in 2023.

 BMoCA has been expanding its regional exhibition program as it strives to increase access to contemporary art across the Denver metro area. These programs build on BMoCA’s 51-year history of collaborating with community partners to develop and present programs that foster the exploration of art, artmaking and dialogue about current topics. The exhibitions also advance BMoCA’s commitment to providing accessible arts programs that “meet people where they are,” and bring contemporary art into varied communities.

But what the two artists and others like them who are living with disabilities can do is use the technique Artistic Realization Technologies (A.R.T.) to realize their artistic vision. Pieces created with the process have recently been sold as part of Access Gallery’s corporate commission for Modivcare, a Denver Tech Center-based company that provides non-emergency medical transportation, remote patient monitoring, meal delivery and personal and home care. For nearly 50 years, Access Gallery has been a creative home for individuals living with disabilities, many of whom sell their work through the gallery’s gift shop or through corporate and non-profit commissions secured through the gallery.

The A.R.T. process uses conventional and unconventional artistic tools as well as specific processes to support artists who often do not have full use of their hands as well as many who are only semi verbal or not able to verbalize at all. Each artist works with a tracker, an abled supporter who works to specifically express what is in the artist’s head. Using creative processes that include laser pointers, color palettes, yard sticks and other simple devices, the tracker works to specifically render each artist’s direction.

“The A.R.T process is set up so that the artist can completely translate their vision. The tracker keeps their influence out of the artwork,” said Louis Trujillo, Access Gallery Manager who is also a trained tracker for the process. “It gives them a voice in a world where they really don’t get a voice a lot of the time. It allows them to make decisions in a world where they aren’t always given the opportunity to make their own decisions.”

The A.R.T. program, which has been around for 25 years, is available across the country. Access Gallery was able to launch the program in Denver through an Arts in Society Grant it received through Redline Contemporary Arts Center, a Denver-based center that focuses on education and engagement between artists and communities to create positive social change.

Trujillo said that one of the most important aspects of the experience of the four artists who have used A.R.T. to create is their full engagement in the creative process. Where they may have felt disconnected in other activities this process hands back to them full creative control and draws them into the act of creating in a more complete way.

“They are able to express joy, anger, fear, and love fully through the work,” Trujillo said.  “For our artists, it includes the therapy that is inherent in all art making.”

Q & A with Joyce Tsai, Ph.D.

Tell us about your journey to become the next director for the Clyfford Still Museum. How did your background, education, and experience lead you there?

Joyce Tsai: The opportunity to lead CSM was one that was simply too extraordinary to pass up, especially as a teacher and scholar long drawn to ambitious abstract painting. I had the privilege of finishing my Ph.D. in residence at the National Gallery of Art at the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts in Washington, D.C. During my lunch breaks, I explored the museum but often found myself standing in front of the Stills in the collection. Paintings have a way of unfolding over time, something I sought to convey to my students when I taught modern art as faculty at the University of Florida and the University of Iowa. I found myself devoting entire sessions to a handful of paintings in order to invite students to see what the artists sought to convey in conversation with what history relays. It’s something I’ve also explored in my role as chief curator of the Stanley Museum of Art at the University of Iowa, home to an extraordinary collection of abstract expressionist and color field painting. Becoming the director of the Clyfford Still Museum at this particular moment is thrilling, and integrates my interests and experience.

What was your first impression of the Museum and Denver?

Joyce Tsai: I squealed with joy when I first stepped foot into the Museum, especially when I saw the care with which the architects designed with the artist in mind. The galleries are beautifully calibrated not only to the large-format paintings but also to Still’s more intimate works on paper. And the fact that storage and conservation spaces are visible attests to the visionary approach that the first director, Dean Sobel, the staff, and board took to creating a museum that celebrates Clyfford Still’s achievements as well as the behind-the-scenes work it takes to care for the collection. The existence and excellence of this museum is due not only to the dedicated individuals who invested in the enterprise, but also to the work the City and County of Denver did to secure the collection. The exceptionalism of this Museum embodies the exceptionalism of this city—it invests in daring ideas for the public good.

What is your vision for the Clyfford Still Museum as it approaches its ten-year anniversary (and beyond)?

Joyce Tsai: It is rare in this line of work to inherit an organization that couples daring vision with sound footing, thoughtful planning, and meticulous execution. The Clyfford Still Museum celebrates the achievement of its namesake while also stretching the very definition of what we think museums can do. Its outreach, education, conservation, and placemaking efforts are exemplary, and I am thrilled to continue advancing this work and creating an environment that is welcoming to all. In the near future, I’m also looking forward to establishing a research center that supports modern art history, theory, and practice by providing scholars, students, and artists access to the CSM collections and archives while knitting the vibrant fabric of the creative and research resources available in Denver and beyond.

— Traditional Spiritual

Bennie Lucille Williams has always felt the music first.

Since she was a child, growing up in small-town Texas and listening to former slaves turned sharecroppers sing in the Quarters, she knew the rhythms were a guiding force for her. She heard these songs in her neighborhood when her best friend who lived in the Quarters would come to tell her the singing had started. She heard them in the church she attended every Sunday with her family.

When she would hit one of life’s low points, she heard them in her own head and heart. She and her friends would sing them on the playground at school. When they were looking for entertainment, her family sought out chances to see Wings Over Jordan, a prominent Black choir during the 1930s and 40s.  She heard these essential spirituals championed by Black intellectuals like Mary McLeod Bethune and Melvin B. Tolson, who spoke at the two Black colleges – Wiley College and Bishop College – in her hometown of Marshall.

“That’s my ancestors’ music. That’s the music from my people,” she said. “I’m black and I’m proud. And these songs tell us clearly, ‘You may oppress my body, but you will not oppress my soul. And you will not take the song out of my heart.’ These are songs of resistance.”

Miss Bennie knows a thing or two about resilience. She has persevered through her life with a healthy mixture of fierce determination and intense wit. For most of her professional career she taught music to junior high school students and high school students in Denver, not a job for the faint of heart. During that time, she heard the young voice of Dianne Reeves and brought her into the choir. Today, Reeves is widely considered among the pantheon of the greatest American jazz singers.

While Miss Bennie loved the work of teaching, her heart remained with the spirituals she was raised on. So, when she retired from teaching, she jumped at the opportunity to choir direct the Spiritualists Project, a decades old, Denver-based choir focused on preserving and performing spirituals. When that engagement came to an end, choir members urged her to continue the work, even setting up the Bennie L. Williams Spiritual Voices choir, to show their commitment to keeping her directing and singing.

“Much of my life has not been a matter of my choosing,” she said. “Much of my life has been a matter of the Lord dropping certain things in my lap. I didn’t choose the spirituals. It was like the spirituals chose me.”

Now retired from that national award-winning choir which continues to carry her name, Miss Bennie is still a source of guidance and wisdom for spiritual singers in Colorado and beyond.

“That line, I don’t feel no ways tired. I’ve come so far. I love that because I have felt that. I know that feeling,” she said. “The thing I think about most is how to inspire young people. How to make sure they stay connected to this music, to their own heritage. At a time when people are trying to erase history, I want to be a light that makes it a living thing.”

Common to the community and its arts and culture writ large is a shared struggle to ensure their artforms are seen and heard and acknowledged.  Like many communities of color who operate outside the European artistic tradition, the fight for visibility and acknowledgement has been a long road. But in the Denver metro area there has been a clear and ever-growing focus on developing both institutions to showcase that art and culture as well as a mentoring of younger generations to ensure these institutions and the art they showcase survive and thrive. Efforts have produced community museums, dance troops, visual artists among other creatives and has steadily fostered a larger community that is prepared to support those artists with their entertainment dollars and their time.

Dozens of artists, activists and educators from the community have worked toward this common goal for decades. Their progress has been hard won, but substantial, creating some of the longest-standing institutions of their kind in the country. Here are the stories of two long-time champions of those efforts.

Maruca Salazar

Maruca Salazar considers herself an “honorary” Chicano.

After immigrating from Mexico, she married a Denver filmmaker and photographer, Daniel, who came from four generations of Denver Northsiders. A mere 46 years later, she is after a full career as a middle school bilingual teacher and an artist as well as an award-winning museum director, considered a foundational contributor to the growth and success of the Latino arts and cultural scene here and nationally. For nearly a decade she led Museo de las Americas, one of only a handful of community museums in the country. In that role, she changed the trajectory of Hispanic, Chicano, Latino, Latina and Latinx artists and carved a meaningful space to hold the multitude of arts and cultural offerings from the diaspora.

But things weren’t always that way.

In the 1960s and 1970s, art lovers would have been hard pressed to see the art Salazar, her husband and thousands like them made and championed. At the time, the work was considered folk art and relegated to a lesser position not considered “serious.”

“We had artists all over the place. They were producing important work. But they were not being acknowledged by the big institutions. They were being told, ‘Your work is very folky,’” she recalled. “You should take it to Writers Square. Which at the time was home to the only gallery dedicated to Chicano and Latino art. One gallery and dozens and dozens of world class artists.”

Salazar began her role urging a greater acknowledgment of arts and culture from all traditions as a third-grade classroom teacher for Denver Public Schools. Hired by the district as one of 350 bilingual teachers ordered by the Brown v. Brown decision by the U.S. Supreme Court, Salazar saw the lasting impacts of forced assimilation. While she worked during the week to incorporate more diverse curriculum including arts in her classroom and advocate for it at the district level, she joined hundreds in her community in the streets in protest.

The Chicano movement reshaped Denver and surrounding cities, forcing open more institutions and opportunities for Hispanic, Latino and Chicano creatives and laying the seeds for new galleries, museums, theater troops and dancers while it also rebuilt and reinvigorated whole neighborhoods. Salazar and others worked to found the Chicano Humanities and Arts Council, which developed early advocacy and gallery space for artists from the community. Eventually, Salazar was offered the opportunity to take her passion for inclusion in education to the administrative level of Denver Public Schools, serving as the district’s Arts Administrator and infusing her belief that arts and culture are a binding agent necessary for a full education in schools across the district.

Then came the opportunity to head Museo de las Americas, becoming only its third director. Immediately, she expanded its offerings to more fully include both local artists and younger local artists. She found space for graffiti art alongside more traditional visual representations.

“If you are talking to a 69-year-old woman like me, it all needs to move forward faster, this inclusion and accessibility. It is taking so much time for me. People don’t get the memo. Sometimes people see the change, but they are afraid. When I search for change, I search for the change that betters all people,” she said. “But for the new generation, I know it is the beginning. My main message has always been that we artists of color, women, queer, need to be given the opportunity to showcase what we are capable of doing. We are capable of running major institutions. We are capable of shows that will influence our entire community. The change is coming and it might not be cozy and comfy for everyone, but it is coming.”

Jeanette Trujillo-Lucero

Jeanette’s voice waivers just a little as she recounts a video she recently received from a mother of one of her young students. The video showed the small child intently engaged in Mexican dance at the instruction of Jeanette over a recent video conference. It was the young girl’s first time dancing.

Jeanette is nationally recognized as an icon in Spanish and Mexican dance. She is a “Living Legend of Dance in the State of Colorado” awarded by the University of Denver Dance Archive Library. She is also the founder and director of the Fiesta Colorado Dance Company. For 40 years she has been dedicated to excellence in the art form. But the video of the little girl is what captures Jeanette’s heart.

“I am known to be a continuing link between the generations. I consider myself the seed for learning. I’ve continued sharing my experience and knowledge throughout the last 40 years,” she said. “It is a joy to see how it affects young people’s lives and to see them start with their first steps to becoming, possibly, one of the best dancers in the world. It takes love, devotion and lots of practice. I must say that, I am proud of my work.”

In the metropolitan area full of creatives, Jeanette’s contributions have not gone unnoticed. She is a two-time winner of the Denver Mayor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts and Culture. And she along with Fiesta Colorado are regularly requested performers across the state and the southwest.

While she has traveled the world with her dance, Jeanette keeps the ambitions of her work with her dance troop deeply rooted in community service.

“Fiesta Colorado has been mainly a Colorado Company and has provided a central point when people come to Colorado for family. They come to find us to feel at home in Denver,” she said.

For a long time, over 50 years, many great dance artists have come to Denver to the share their Hispanic cultural traditions. Today, there are many fine professional artists in the field based in Colorado. The dance form is really a complicated and is a highly specialized and technical art form for both dance movement and music. Although, Jeanette’s performances are appreciated and enjoyed, she feels that they have not always been artistically recognized as a highly-elevated dance form when compared to other styles of dance like ballet and modern dance. It takes a lifetime of training to learn this style of dance.

“It is time for the professional performers and groups, who specialize in Spanish and Mexican dance, to be highlighted and acknowledge as the true and authentic examples of the Hispanic culture,” Jeanette said. “Today, there is even a stronger need for our community representation as the cultural climate of Denver is changing.  It is important to find the richness and the diversity of one of the root cultures of Colorado.”

Her persistence paid off. Today, she has helped to place Spanish and Mexican dance in front of symphony-goers through regular performances with the Colorado Symphony Orchestra. This fall, The University of Denver’s Newman Center will present Fiesta Colorado in a stand-alone performance. During the pandemic shutdown of classrooms across Colorado, her work along with the Mexican Cultural Center and the Colorado Symphony went out to students in the form of Latin Beats Concerts, the Lift Every Voice Diversity Concerts and the annual Levitt Pavilion Fiesta Concert. She was recently honored with the Colorado Business Committee for the Art’s Lifetime Leadership Award. In the coming year she will be honored with the “Madrina of Dance Arts” award and will officially be honored as an inspirational woman of the earth a “Corn Mother.”

Jeanette also makes a point to walk the walk. With rightful credit for launching hundreds of dance careers from Colorado to the national stage as well notable independent dance companies, she did something even she finds a little astonishing. She went back to school herself. During the pandemic shutdowns, she opted to return to college and get her certificate in non-profit management through a scholarship sponsored by Red Rocks Community College and the SCFD, applying her devotion to other people’s learning to herself.

“Now I’m training myself again in new ways, that I hope will make me even better at my life’s work,” she said.

Jeanette is quick to point out the intense work and sacrifice needed to be a creative and successful in her field of expertise.

“All artists work much harder that you can imagine. It is a full-time job in non-profit business and community relationships,” Jeanette said. “I am thankful to all of those people who have supported my work in Denver.”

This month, the SCFD welcomes two new board members.

Denver Councilwoman Jamie Torres

Councilwoman Jamie Torres took office as the Denver City Council Member representing District 3, Denver’s westside, on July 15, 2019. She was elected to the leadership role of Pro Tem of the Denver City Council in 2019 and is a member of the Land Use, Transportation & Infrastructure Committee as well as the Safety, Education, Housing & Homelessness Committee where she is also Vice-Chair.

Jamie’s roots are directly in the west Denver community where she and her husband currently call home. She is a third-generation Denverite, her grandmother was born in a small house in the Curtis Park neighborhood and grew up in the old Auraria Neighborhood and her grandfather grew up in Sun Valley. Her family moved to Villa Park in the 1960s where Jamie has now lived for over 30 years. It is her home and the community is her inspiration.

Jamie is a community advocate and community connector to her core. Prior to being elected, Jamie spent 18 years in the Human Rights & Community Partnerships Agency (HRCP) in the City and County of Denver where she helped ensure Denver is focused on the civil rights, human rights, and social justice needs of its residents. Jamie was both Deputy Director of the Agency and Director of the Denver Office of Immigrant & Refugee Affairs, an office she started in 2005 because she saw a need for greater immigrant inclusion. Over the years in working for local government, Jamie worked directly on issues of poverty, equity, food insecurity, community and civic engagement, immigrant integration, and approaching innovative ways of direct leadership development in underrepresented communities.

Jacki Cooper Melmed

Jacki Cooper Melmed currently serves as Chief Legal Counsel for Governor Jared Polis.  She held the same position for Governor John Hickenlooper from 2015 through 2019.  As a member of the Governor’s executive management team, she works closely with the Governor and other executive staff members to manage state government, plan the strategic direction of the administration, and design key initiatives.  She also oversees the Governor’s legal team, who advise the Governor, senior staff, and cabinet on a number of legal issues.  Her key responsibilities include managing litigation and other legal matters in partnership with the Attorney General, serving as ethics counsel for the administration, overseeing judicial appointments, and representing the Governor on matters ranging from labor relations to criminal justice reform to Indian affairs.

Before working for state government, Jacki practiced law at Shoemaker Ghiselli + Schwartz in Boulder, Colorado and Hogan & Hartson in Denver, Colorado, and served as a law clerk for Colorado Supreme Court Justice Michael Bender.  She attended law school at the University of Colorado, Boulder, where she was Editor-in-Chief of the Colorado Law Review.

She also holds a master’s degree in English Literature and Film from the University of Chicago, and bachelor’s degrees in English and French from the University of Michigan. She is an avid hiker and skier and enjoys reading, cooking, and spending time with her husband and, when allowed, two adult sons.

In the Denver metro area, this real change included the growth and expansion of the disability community across the arts and culture landscape. Organizations sprouted from this inclusive moment are now mainstays of our performing and visual arts offerings for all Coloradans. Here are the stories of a few who contribute to this shared experience.  Meet Teri Wagner, a dance and performance pioneer and founder of Spoke N Motion, Jocelyn Roy, a working graphic artist at Access Gallery and Ben Raanan, the new artistic director for Phamaly Theater Company.

Spoke N Motion              Access Gallery          Phamaly 

Teri Wagner: Spoke N Motion Dance

Teri Wagner was born to dance.

At age 11, she joined The Colorado Wheelers, a wheelchair square dance group and never looked back. Since that time, she has not only been a prolific dance performer in the U.S. and internationally in a variety of dance forms including modern, ballet and ballroom, she has also been a foundational player in insuring that artists living with disabilities in Colorado have a home.

Over pizza and beers in her living room, a group of artists – all living with various disabilities – hatched a plan to form a theater troupe. More than 35 years later, that company is a foundational force in Colorado’s theater scene and the spiritual home to hundreds who have graced its productions.

“We were talking and realized that too many of us had the experience of showing up for an audition and not even getting the chance to sing or dance or perform in any way before we were told, ‘No,’” Wagner said. “They just did not know what to do with us. We decided that night that if they weren’t going to give us the chance to perform, we’d start our own company and do it anyway.”

That night, Phamaly Theater Company, which bills itself as a creative home for theatre artists with disabilities, was born. Early productions typically featured music and dances numbers and Wagner was front and center for those. She was also front and center for the opportunity to see inclusion reach her community. She wanted to challenge the thinking that people living with disabilities were better off sitting in some quiet corner of the world.

“I wanted to make sure that everyone like me had the chance to experience the joy of performance. For me it’s dance. For others it was theater. But having an artistic soul and a desire to express that is just as common in my community as it is in any community. Our trouble is gaining acceptance that we have contributions to make,” she said.

After years of struggling for rehearsal and performance space, the Denver Center for the Performing Arts stepped in and gave the theater company a permanent home, the Space Theater.

During her time with Phamaly, Wagner got numerous chances to expand her dance repertoire and to discover that her passion was pure dance performance. She set her head and heart to forming her own company, and in the fall of 2012, she did just that by launching Spoke N Motion. The dance company promises a place where those with and without disabilities a place to explore the world of movement and dance together. Dancers there offer five to 10 performances each year featuring one major production.

“I do it for my own love of dance and the joy I find in it. But I also do it because of my love and compassion for people. It’s goes way beyond me. When people see that passion of the dancers on stage they understand,” Wagner said. “My work is about reaching out to the individuals and allowing them to give the very best they can of themselves and for themselves.”

Jocelyn Roy: Access Gallery

Jocelyn Roy did not always know she wanted to be a graphic artist.

Initially, she thought she wanted to become a lawyer. But cognitive challenges around reading made that dream difficult to achieve. Her mother thought a career as a nurses assistant might be a good goal. But Roy decided she had other talents she wanted to explore.

While looking for an internship, she got connected to Access Gallery. And for nearly two decades, she has made the gallery a home base and space for her creative work, learning new skills and perfecting others. To date, she has sold work through the gallery and found a sort of “spiritual place” where she knows she belongs.

“What I do with my art, it’s my voice. It’s just the way I do things. It takes away all my grief with COVID and personal stuff. I have to do art,” Roy said of her work.  “I design almost every day. It’s my voice. It’s spiritual for me to express how I’m feeling. And I feel grateful that people would want a piece of my art.”

Roy is one of many artists working either full or part time at the Access Gallery. The gallery is an inclusive nonprofit organization that engages the community by opening doors to creative, educational and economic opportunities for people with disabilities to access, experience and benefit from the arts. What this means is that young people living with varying degrees of disability have a real chance to earn a living from their artwork. In a world where about 70 percent of them are unemployed, this is a real opportunity to live the life they choose on their own terms.

The artists work alone or in teams, depending on the piece. Their works are for sale in the gallery and are also produced on private and corporate commissions. Many of the area’s leading companies and small businesses including Gart Properties, SexyPizza, CoBiz Bank, Simply Good Foods and BellCo Credit Union have commissioned Access Gallery artists for pieces that hang in their buildings.

For Roy, the chance to make, exhibit and sell her art has been a game changer for her ability to both manage her own future as well as weather the recent death of her mother, the primary pillar in her life.

“I know she is with me and I can feel her encouraging me on,” Roy said. “My mother never stopped believing in me and she never thought there were things I couldn’t do. Now I have to think that for myself. But I am doing it every day and my artwork helps.”

Ben Raanan: Phamaly Theater Company

Ben Raanan is a pioneer. He is a rebel and a self-described “militant disabled person and activist.” He is also an artist and hardcore creative.

What he is not is an inspiration.

“The word inspirational is a no go. Disabled theatremakers are not inspirational. We are artists. We are pushing the boundaries of expectation all the time,” Raanan said.

Recently, Raanan has signed on to push another boundary. He’s the new artistic director at Phamaly Theater Company, a lynch pin of the Denver metro theater scene for more than 30 years. The group’s next offering, Alice in Wonderland promises to be a psychedelic romp and one that will challenge viewers. Across its history, Phamaly has seen each actor’s disability as a creative asset, using those unique elements to expand and challenge traditional characters from across the theatrical spectrum.

“I believe that the disabled community can do some really unbelievable things. When I direct or program a production, I want to have a moment where the nondisabled attendees stop and say, I never thought disabled people could do that. Those to me are political acts. Those are transformative acts for everyone involved, the audience and the actors alike,” Raanan said. “These are also moments that humanizes disability. We don’t do disabled theater. We do theater with a bunch of actors and other artists who happen to be disabled.”

For Raanan, this effort to humanize and normalize his own participation has grown to a desire to see that happen for all people living with any type of disability. Raanan has a physical disability known as Erbs Palsy as well as a cognitive disability.

He studied at Drake University for his undergraduate and DePaul University for his directorial study. In between those educational stints, he worked at the Ensemble Theater in Cincinnati, Ohio.

“I’ve known about Phamaly’s legacy for ages. It’s shocking to me that the theater community at large doesn’t invest in Phamaly like the cultural institution it is,” he said.  I want to help take this legacy and history that is so immense and push it out into the world more. We have an intense footprint in Denver. Now we need to develop the same footprint nationally. We should be at the forefront at all the conversations about disability in the arts nationally. I know we can do that because we’re in the enormous footsteps and the amazing treds of the founders of this theater company.”

Do you add to this list foundational contributions made to us by the natural sciences and natural history? Maybe not.

But these “disciplines” function just like the more typical arts and culture experience we might include. The natural sciences and natural history ground us in a deeper understanding of who we are and where we come from, in all the richness of our diversity. They inform our current state of being and connect us to the natural world all around us. And the clarity of the information they offer can also illuminate possible paths forward. Organizations who provide this critical element to our larger understanding of culture have been elemental to the SCFD since its inception.

As we prepare to celebrate Earth Day, the SCFD honors the contributions of the dozens of organizations it funds whose scientific missions educate, enhance and illuminate our understanding of the world around us.

SCFD-funded organizations work every day to advance our understanding of the natural world and spark scientific curiosity in our children. They accomplish real world conservation on a local, national and global scale. And they work to provide avenues for each of us to connect, or reconnect, with the wonder of this state, nation and earth we call home.

You can learn more about the Natural Science and Natural History organizations the SCFD supports

Bird Conservancy of the Rockies

In their words: Conserving birds and their habitats through science, education and land stewardship. [Link to our video]

Bluff Lake Nature Center

In their words: Bluff Lake Nature Center is a unique urban natural area dedicated to educating and inspiring people of all ages to respect, protect, and connect with our natural world.

Boulder County Audubon Society

In their words: Boulder County Audubon Society is a voice for birds and wildlife conservation through habitat protection, conservation advocacy, and nature education.

Butterfly Pavilion

In their words: To foster an appreciation of invertebrates by educating the public about the need to protect and care for threatened habitats globally, while conducting research for solutions in invertebrate conservation.

City of Aurora Open Space & Natural Resources

In their words: We are stewards of open spaces essential to Aurora’s quality of life.

Children’s Museum of Denver

In their words: To create extraordinary experiences that champion the wonder and joy of childhood.

Colorado Mountain Club

In their words: To unite the energy, interest, and knowledge of the students and lovers of the mountains of Colorado. To collect and disseminated information regarding the Rocky Mountains on behalf of science, literature, art and recreation; to stimulate public interest in our mountain areas. To encourage the preservation of forest, flowers, fauna and natural scenery; and to render readily accessible the alpine attractions of this region.

Denver Audubon Society

In their words: To advocate for the environment, connecting people with nature through education, conservation, and research.

Denver Zoo

In their words: Secure a better world for animals through human understanding.

Denver Botanic Gardens

In their words: To connect people with plants, especially plants from the Rocky Mountain region and similar regions around the world, providing delight and enlightenment to everyone.

Denver Museum of Nature & Science

In their words: Be a catalyst! Ignite our community’s passion for nature and science.

Denver Urban Gardens

In their words: To cultivate gardeners, grow food and nourish community. To offer neighborhoods the essential resources for community gardens, including ongoing technical expertise.

Evergreen Audubon

In their words: To conserve wildlife and natural ecosystems, provide citizen science experiences, and inspire and educate our community to benefit people and biodiversity.

Friends of Dinosaur Ridge

In their words: To educate the public about, and ensure the preservation of, the natural and historic resources of Dinosaur Ridge, Triceratops Trail, and the surrounding areas.

Growing Gardens of Boulder County

In their words: To enrich the lives of our community through sustainable urban agriculture. To provide opportunities for people of all ages and backgrounds to connect with their food, the land and each other.

HawkQuest

In their words: To provide an educational opportunity to understand and appreciate the interaction of wild living things in their natural environment, and the importance of preserving the world in which they live.

The Hudson Gardens & Event Center

In their words: To serve the community by providing a forum for educational, cultural and artistic events and activities, drawing upon the beauty and resources of our regional display garden and our community partners.

Lafayette Miners Museum

In their words: To showcase the history of Lafayette, Colorado, especially as it relates to coal mining and miners’ lifestyles. To serve and educate the interested public through the collection, preservation, and interpretation of artifacts and materials that represent the history of the Lafayette area.

Majestic View Nature Center

In their words: To promote environmental education and nature interpretation for Arvada and surrounding communities.

Morrison History Museum

In their words: To serve the curious by acquiring, preserving, and displaying objects related to local paleontology while promoting critical thinking and science literacy.

Nature’s Educators

In their words: Our mission is to elevate the care and protection of wildlife by fostering memorable and lasting connections that inspire our community to become more environmentally conscious through collaboration, education, and rehabilitation.

The Urban Farm

In their words: To inspire excitement for learning through practical work experience in a farm setting while fostering respect, responsibility, curiosity, caring, and grit for youth within the City and County of Denver.

Ocean First Institute

In their words: Our goal is ocean conservation through research and education. We educate and empower future generations to preserve our ocean and become future leaders in conservation. We do this by connecting youth with the wonders of the ocean and the importance of hands-on conservation through programming that highlights scientific exploration.

South Suburban Parks and Recreation – Nature Programs

In their words: To further the appreciation of natural open space for our community through direct positive experiences.

Wild Bear Nature Center

In their words: To provide year-round educational programs to people of all ages to foster a lifelong appreciation of the environment and to promote an environmentally aware, responsible and ecologically sound community.

WOW Children’s Museum

In their words: To engage all families in educational, hands-on experiences that connect curiosity, creativity, and discovery.

They are the tradition keepers, the ecosystem warriors, the nurturers of our heritage and the visionaries of our path ahead. You will hear in their individual stories many common threads. They speak of work with purpose that connects their community. They talk of the core of relationship that bolsters their work and defines their sense of self. They find meaning in their role as bridge from past to present and from old to young. They understand the role that culture plays as unifier. They have all, in their own ways, evolved into their lives and led their organizations to evolve as well.

Here are just a few of their stories, representing the thousands of women who do this work every day as creators and collaborators.

Daphne Rice-Allen, board chair of the Black American West Museum

Influenced by her artist and educator parents, Daphne Rice-Allen has been contributing to arts and culture her entire life.

Her mother piloted the first Black history course for Denver Public Schools in the 1970s. She would take her class to Paul Stewart’s Barber Shop to see his burgeoning collection of Black Western artifacts, sometimes with her daughter in tow as well. This barbershop collection would ultimately become the Black American West Museum, one of the few museums in the country dedicated to cataloging the history and contributions of Black Americans to the founding and development of the American West.

Rice-Allen recalls growing up with her sisters in a house full of creative endeavors from singing to painting to sculpting. This foundation, she says, encouraged her as an adult to be one of the early volunteers for what is now the Colorado Black Arts Festival. Her love of the history education her parents encouraged led her to work for a time in her career at the Black American West Museum, returning to serve on the board of directors in 2011.

In that role, she finds herself surrounded by the people and places that underpin the far-to-often neglected American history of the founding of the West. In the museum, Rice-Allen is at home with the Buffalo Soldiers, miners, farmers and ranchers and early residents of Dearfield, Colorado, one of the first black-founded and black-owned towns. The museum building itself stands as a monument to Black Americans’ contributions and struggles in the West. Rice-Allen and the board have worked for years to raise funds to renovate the new museum home, previously the home of Dr. Justina Ford, the first licensed Black female physician in Denver. Ford was refused appropriate recognition and licensing for years and ran her medical practice from her home.

“I stand on the shoulders of these people who developed the West. It’s simply put, American history,” Rice-Allen said. “I’m just proud this museum is still standing, still educating, still sharing these stories after 50 years. And I’m proud that we continue to break the barrier between American history and Black American history. It is really all one.”

Tammy VerCauteren, executive director of Bird Conservancy of the Rockies

A little more than two decades ago, Tammy VerCauteren spent a good deal of her time buying lunches or dinners for farmers and ranchers who were willing to talk. She slept in her car and dedicated countless hours to learning about their lives and livelihoods.

These were the farmers and ranchers whose help she needed to conserve grassland birds. Without her commitment to understanding their reality, she knew she wouldn’t move them a single step toward understanding hers.  She worked for over a decade on this effort, which has produced significant gains for birds and the ecosystems to which they contribute.

When she started in her role doing outreach for the Prairie Partners program of what is now the Bird Conservancy of the Rockies, the organization was housed in an old trailer at Barr Lake in Brighton. Today, the conservancy has a restored historic home on the property and environmental learning center for inspiring people of all ages in nature. The conservancy’s work now stretches from Montana to Mexico. The reach is needed to study and conserve the migratory birds on which it focuses. It’s educational offerings for children and adults alike have grown by leaps and bounds.

It is this sustained focus on science, education and land stewardship that VerCauteren holds as her mantra.

“At the end of the day, you really can’t change the behavior of animals. It is truly the decisions that people make that will decide whether we have these birds for generations or we don’t,”  that is why our strategies to conserve birds and their habitats involves people, she said. “In all the work I’ve ever done, I have found that taking a moment and stepping into other people’s shoes is what makes change. It factors into how I lead because it’s how I’m wired.”

Grace Gillette, executive director of the Denver March Powwow

Though she came from a family of leaders in the Arikara tribe of North Dakota, you could not have convinced young Grace Gillette that she would one day oversee one of the largest powwows in the world.

In keeping with her upbringing, Gillette sees the job as a sacred duty. Both the preservation of a way of life for her people as well as an opportunity to help those outside native culture to gain renewed respect and understanding.

What began in a small auditorium at the Denver Indian Center as an opportunity for disconnected Native American families, now typically features more than 1,500 dancers from 100 different tribes, 38 states and three Canadian territories. Gillette herself got involved because her daughter liked to dance at the small powwows the center held nearly every weekend. Gillette would make her daughters outfits and volunteer to gather “giveaways,” special gifts of food or other items given to dancers and special guests.

As the tiny powwows grew, Gillette continued to volunteer moving with them as they moved to larger venues and eventually settled on a standing event each March. The selection of March filled a space in the powwow circuit and also helped parents make the cultural connection for their children who had graduated and moved on to college and work. The powwow found its current home in 1990, when it registered its largest crowd to date and a record-for-the-time 54 drum groups competing. Happening well before the advent of digital marketing, one of Gillette’s roles as volunteer marketer for the event was to mail out more than 9,000 posters each year. These posters found their homes in community centers, across reservations and throughout Indian Country. Some native homes still have framed versions of these posters hanging on their walls and going back decades.

Gillette agreed to take over the newly created job running the powwow in 1992, leaving her beloved job with the City of Littleton but unable to say no to the call to contribute to what she believes to be a way of life. Today, she has seen her work and the work of many honored on the BBC and in the exhibits of the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian and the Library of Congress. But her real joy is the powwow itself, watching the dancers and drummers coming together and watching her community celebrate the traditional ways.

“I have found out not all strong leaders are good people. Me in particular, I am a descendant of a long line of chiefs and I learned from them that to be a good leader you have to be humble. You have to put the needs of other people first and you’ve got to be truthful,” she said. “When I think I might get an attack of self-importance, I think about the fact that right now, since the first powwow I attended with my daughter, we have great-grandchildren on the dance floor from those original programs. And I’m humbled to be a part of that.”

Claudia Moran-Pichardo, executive director of Museo de las Americas

Claudia Moran-Pichardo came to Denver, newly married and without knowing anyone. She had left behind her career as an archaeologist in Mexico with the intention of picking that work up again when she settled in her new home. But those intentions were formed before she found her place at Museo de las Americas.

One of only a handful of Latino art museums in the country, Museo has developed a reputation as a museum dedicated to the community, both the community of the Americas writ large, but also the distinct and individual countries and cultures that make up that larger community. For Moran-Pichardo, it was a place to find what her purpose could look like in her adopted country.

Her passion for archaeological study closely aligned with museum work and she found herself working at Museo, particularly in the area of education and then pursuing her own educational advancement through her masters in museums and field studies at the University of Colorado. When Museo former director, Maruca Salazar, approached Moran-Pichardo to help with succession planning for her retirement, it took a long time to sink in that Salazar wanted her to be the next to helm the museum. But by 2017, Moran-Pichardo did take over the museum’s leadership, a role she could not have imagined for herself when she was still living and working in Mexico. Five Four years later, she continues to nurture both the existing museum as well as her vision for seeing it replicated in other places across Colorado where Latino communities could and should have the same connection. She has also joined the effort to see the last available space on the National Mall become and American Latino Museum.

“The role that Museo plays in the community it is really important for my personal values. It is a space where you can have all kinds of expressions through art and it bring Latino art and culture from all communities and many different angles,” she said.  “We often have artists who exhibit with us, and no matter how well known, they tell us that the way they were able to connect with their community through the exhibit was special. Every time we create one of these collaborations, it makes me happy. That has never gotten old. I don’t think it ever will.”

Nora Burnett Abrams, director of MCA Denver

Nora Burnett Abrams took over the leadership of MCA Denver in the halcyon days of 2019 when people still crowded indoors for events and exhibits without a thought to social distancing or wearing a mask. Even before the public-health imposed shutdowns, Abrams was focused on expanding the museum’s reach beyond its existing four walls into the community and into new audiences.

The pandemic put that effort into overdrive.

Since April 2020, the museum has offered over 80 virtual programs, reaching beyond their typical museum audience and engaging a host of new communities who might not have thought they were interested in experiencing the potentially daunting moniker “Contemporary Art.” The museum has shifted its retail offerings for sale to more fully support local makers. And they have even experimented with paid ticketing for virtual events, a category of new revenue to support the museum’s mission that has been a point of struggle for many arts and culture organizations during the pandemic shutdowns.

But this swerve into a different lane isn’t anything new for Abrams. She left her traditional museum career path behind in New York more than a decade ago. Moving from a more historically laden, tradition-heavy environment in the museum space, to one that more easily rewards risk and change alerted Abrams to how much she thrives in that environment.

That part of her nature is suited well to the current moment when risk taking and adaptation are the only means of continuing outreach missions, not a special add-on that would be “nice to do.” Far from the platitudes reminding us all this broken time is the right moment to create change, Abrams has dedicated her staff and their work to enacting that change.

“MCA Denver has a long track record of trying to puncture the perceived pretentiousness of art museums. We have always worked to make the connection for people that art and artists provide an incredible lens for looking at and reflecting back to us the world that we are a part of,” Abrams said. “Everything we do is about helping the viewer to process, think about, reflect upon their own lives and the world. Honestly, that’s how we achieve relevance and connect ourselves to the hearts and minds of the people who engage with us.”